The Pain Never Stops
by DarkTaoAngel
Summary: After the death of her brother, Pirika seeks help in the least likely place: the arms of the man who killed him. First ever Hao x Pirika! Rating may go up. Read and review!
1. Bleeding Walls

**DarkTaoAngel: This idea came to me and I thought it would be cool to try it out. I dedicate this to my mom, who chose the random Shaman King characters to be matched up in this story! It's probably my last update in a while, or at least my last new story for a while, so enjoy! Read and review please, and I _might_ continue it!**

The ward was silent; the walls, so white they looked as though they would bleed and no one would notice. Perhaps they were, and the blood was simply soaking up in the pure whiteness of the walls. Pure; as though they were something sacred. But that would be giving that place too much credit, and for a place full of so much sadness, it was a wonder that there were not tears soaking into the walls as well. Blood and tears, so much sadness and pain.

But this was not a place where blood was supposed to be, and tears were not meant to be shed in such a place. But still they were, ongoing and never-ending, as though the blank-faced people going in and out were not the ones shedding the tears, but instead those that were forced to stay, condemned to a life of sullen loneliness. Those who stayed saw the blood, cried the tears, but still the walls stayed white. She wondered how they stayed so white; but perhaps they were colored once.

Sitting in a small chair in the corner of a small white room, she watched silently over her brother. She looked down at the chair, with an almost disgusted look etched upon her face. It was white, empty looking. It reflected her sadness, her sorrow, her pain. It wasn't as though she was angry at the chair, for it couldn't chose what color it was painted, but the people who had painted it, showered it in the unfeeling color that was white, had seemingly not thought through enough the pain that it caused those who had to look at it. Those who had to sit in it as they looked down upon more pain and grief. She wished she could throw it across the room, make it break. Perhaps then it would bleed, turning red like she knew it should be. But still she sat, not showing any sign of what she was feeling, what was going through her mind. She showed no emotions, for in a place like this, there were no emotions to show. Expressed with words could her thoughts no longer be, and so she contented herself with simply sitting and watching the walls. She was one of those people who could see them bleed. See the pain that still haunted them from all of the people who had come before her to sit and watch others bleed, the red crimson from those who bled for long amounts of time soaking up into the walls. They bled with the people who watched them bled.

She heard a cough beside her and knew she should have had a better reaction than simply sighing, which is what she did. It had been like this for days, the same thing. First, he would cough, then he would go into a sort of seizure, and after that he would simply fall back out of consciousness. It should have bothered her more than it did, and she knew it. But she also knew one other thing, the thing that prevented her, and even the doctors, from doing anything. Just as they had said, he was going to die anyway. The best they could do was make him a bit more comfortable and wait for that final cough. Maybe this one was the last.

Pirika stood up and rung the buzzer next to her brother's bed. Two nurses immediately came in, acting as though nothing was terribly wrong when her brother began having another fit. They had become accustomed to it as well, and so they made no effort to stop it, simply to make it more painless. They were always trying to make things more painless. But they could never take away all of the hurt. Didn't they notice that the walls were bleeding?

No, Pirika thought to herself, no one does if they've never contributed to the bleeding. Those who helped the walls bleed and cry were those who could see it happen. Only them. Only those who had seen the pain and bleeding of someone else. They had never seen the pain happen. The doctors could probably see the walls bleed, but Pirika doubted whether they would pay attention to them if they could.

Another doctor was called in, this time to stop Pirika's brother from throwing up blood… again. So had been the routine the page four days. She wondered for a moment what life would have been like had this never happened. What life would have been like without Hao.

_The Patch Village was coming into view. Just another few feet and they would be there, and they could finally rest after the day behind them. After preventing Hao from taking the King of Spirits, they had thought him dead at last. But his minions were still alive and following them, and the only safe haven for the group of traveling shamans, Pirika's brother among them, was the Patch Village. Once there, they would contact the Patch Officiants and ask them to intervene. _

_They were getting closer, not even half a mile away from their destination. Pirika and Anna were waiting at the doors to the antique shop of Patch, but the smiles on their faces had vanished upon seeing the boys coming into view. For they were not alone._

_Shock replaced disbelief as the girls tried their hardest to warn the boys of Hao's return, but they seemed to mistake it as another friendly greeting and simply waved back. Horo among them was one of the first to be struck down by Hao's minions as well as his Spirit of Fire. Hao smirked as the shamans turned to see their comrade who, apart from him still breathing, was as close to death as one could possibly be without dying. _

"_Take this as a warning. I will become the Shaman King. Oh, and girls? I'm still looking for a Shaman Queen, you know." Hao said as he waved addressingly at Anna and Pirika, who in turn spat back and ran to the others, hoping that none other than Horo were injured. None were, but Horo's injuries made up for the lack there of in the others. Pirika felt like screaming, but she held it back between muffled sobs and chocked words of comfort. She knew at that moment that her brother was going to die soon._

The tears had long since stopped, only to be replaced by a severe sense of emptiness. Yes, her brother had bled. He had been stabbed, as it turned out, and was lucky to still be alive. Or, perhaps, he was unlucky and would rather be dead. Pirika wished she could be.

Another cough came from Pirika's left, and she knew it would probably be the last cough she would hear out of her older brother. She stood abruptly and left the room, not wanting to be around when her brother took his final breath.

She was taking this surprisingly calm, after all, her brother was her only sibling, and therefore she was closer to him than she was to any of the other members of her family. She had traveled with him, cheered him on as he fought, trained him, and talked with him about his dream. _His _dream, not hers. It was her fault for making him fight, making him train. It was almost as though she had killed him. But no, she told herself, Hao was the one who had killed – no, murdered – her brother. She didn't want to be held responsible to the death of the only person who had meant more to her than life itself.

_And he'll do it to all of the others. It'll all be your fault. You could have warned him, just like you could have helped him beat Hao before. All you did was wait, hoping he would return. What if he hadn't? What would you have done then? Cried like you do about everything? Well, life isn't like that. You need to take responsibility for your actions, not pretend it was never your fault. There's only one way you can help the others; stop them from being killed. Remember, 'I'm still looking for a Shaman Queen, you know.' That's the only way._

A voice inside of Pirika's head seemed to always come out when she was more then worse for wear. Her brother was dead now, or at least soon would be, and that voice couldn't even offer words of comfort. It was like the walls, blank, in her mind, bleeding. But she knew it was right. That was the only way.

"Onii-chan" that was the first word Pirika had uttered in three days. She took one last look at her brother, seeing his chest slowly stop rising as it fell one last time, and she knew that was the most she could take. She turned and ran, down the stairs, out the door, and down the streets of Tokyo. She wanted to run to escape everything, but it still seemed to catch up with her. _That's the only way._

The voice in her head still instructing her, Pirika tore down the cracked sidewalks and around the many paved streets, knowing exactly where she was going. She knew where he lived. She always had.

She ran through the night, her hours of training with her brother had paid off. _Her brother. _This was for him, and for all that he had lived for. And also… for all he died for.

Only one more block to go and she'd be there, at the small apartment she knew so well. She'd been there before, alone, as she never wanted to take her brother there. He'd never have approved, and she knew better than to tell him about it after she returned home. She didn't want him to know.

Exhausted but proud of herself for having made it thus far, Pirika knocked on the hard wood door with as much might as she could muster in her current physical state. It proved to be enough, however, as the door slowly opened, and a certain fire shaman with a grin permanently plastered upon his face opened it. His grin widened greatly, turning quickly into a smirk, as he saw who it was visiting him at such a late hour.

Pirika didn't fear him like she knew she should, for if her plan worked, as she knew it would, there would be nothing to fear. She pushed right past him and up the stairs to his apartment, number 6. She'd been there before, too.

Hao followed in her wake, clad in only a pair of black and red starred boxers and a plain white t-shirt, still smirking as he always did whenever he knew he was about to get his way. Pirika ushered Hao into his own apartment before slamming the door shut tightly, not even flinching as the wood crunched slightly under the pressure.

"Do sit down." Hao said, pointing to the bright green couch in the center of what looked to be the living room, one of four rooms to the place. The walls were white, just like the hospital's walls. But, quite to Pirika's surprise, they weren't bleeding.

"Have a drink, and then we can talk about why you're here." Hao spoke calmly, taking long strides over to his small corner kitchen and removing from the cupboards one long, thin wine glass. He looked back over to Pirika, who nodded as though acknowledging that it was alright with her, and he proceeded to remove a second glass. He then went to the small fridge and got out a bottle of what appeared to be sake, or rice wine. Hao wasn't too young to drink, considering he had lived more than one thousand years, and at the moment, Pirika didn't care whether she was underage or not. When offered the drink, she accepted it, wanting to rid her mind of the outside world. And what better way to do it than with alcohol?

"So, what brings you here?" Hao asked casually, as though he was talking about the weather. Though, this was much worse than the weather. Pirika had just run away, her brother had died, and she was talking with her brother's worst enemy.

"As if you don't know." She answered, as refined as she could be without showing how much effect the drink was having on her. She sat back on the couch a bit more, Hao sitting a mere two feet away from her, watching her every move. Pirika stared off into space for a moment, not wanting to talk with him just yet. They drink needed to talk a bit more effect before she could have a long conversation with someone who was dubbed insane and could kill her at any given moment.

"I know what happened to your brother, and if you're here for revenge you can just—" Hao began, but he was cut off by Pirika, her voice barely audible as she struggled to maintain a solid tone.

"Th-that's not wh-why I'm here." She stuttered, still refusing to look him in the eyes as she contentedly stared at the wall. She took another long sip from her drink, emptying the glass as Hao refilled it again, and she drank a good amount of that glassful before finally stating her reason of coming to Hao's apartment so late in the night.

"I have a deal to make with you." Pirika said, finally regaining her voice and no longer stuttering. Hao made a face as though to say 'oh, really?' but Pirika was still not looking at him, so she didn't see it. She remained silent for a moment, as though waiting for something to happen or for the clock in the corner of the apartment to reach a certain time of night. But when minutes went by and no such signal came, she finally looked at Hao to find him examining his wine glass with a particular air of interest.

"Well? Do tell." He stated simply, prying his attention away from the glass to look her straight in the eyes, and this time, she didn't turn away. She spoke in a drawling, monotone voice, her loud, almost echoing words nearly, if only a little bit, shocking the elder Asakura brother.

"Are you still looking for a Shaman Queen?"


	2. It's Raining in My Eyes

**DarkTaoAngel: Yeah, I know, late update. But it's here, so… XD It gets sadder from now on, and… uh… it's sad and stuff. But don't take my word for it! Read! (and review)!**

**Chapter 2: It's Raining in My Eyes**

Yoh was worried. His usual lazy, carefree sense of life had seemingly disappeared to be replaced by a fretting sense of danger. The smile on his face was generally the source of his happiness, his mask to conceal his emotions which also held back all traces of fear or pain, even in the worst of times, had been removed and replaced with a completely unfamiliar grievance of sadness. And it wasn't that unexpected for him to be in such a state, after all, it's not every day you find out your best friend is dead.

He had started his day perfectly fine, the cheerful grin never leaving his face. Around midday Anna had decided to go shopping, leaving him with a bit of time to himself. Having no training to do and not wanted to spend the day sleeping, he'd made up his mind about visiting his sick friend in the hospital.

Sure, he'd been told that Horo was extremely ill and would never recover, but Yoh still kept his faith through all harsh events. His friend was strong and had an amazingly powerful will to live, which was what had kept him alive thus far. Yoh had even visited him once in the hospital where he'd actually become healthy enough to sit up!

Yoh had also been there through the rough times. When Horo had been going through another one of his coughing spells it was Yoh who was there, fighting away every doctor that tried to remove him from the room, and holding the bucket as his friend threw up. It hurt Yoh to see him like this, to see anyone like this. They'd known each other ever since they'd first fought in the Shaman Tournament preliminaries, and they'd been friends ever since. It had been almost two years since they'd met.

Yoh's breathing was shaky as he fought back tears. If Horo could see him now he'd tell him to stop crying, that it wasn't dignified and that it wasn't something that he would normally do. But Horo wasn't there, and Yoh had to stop telling himself that he was. It only caused him more pain when he had to be told again that he was dead. He still liked to think that, if he didn't say he was dead, didn't say those words, that they wouldn't be true. He was only fooling himself.

Yoh picked up the phone, hoping to call someone so that he wouldn't feel so alone. He thought through the list of people he'd call, and came to only one. Pirika. She was the person who was most likely to be powerfully affected by Horo's death. After all, he was her brother, and her only remaining family member as well. Both of her parents had died when she was only ten in a car crash, leaving her and her twelve-year-old brother to fend for themselves.

Yoh heard the ringing through the phone and waited for an answer, but none came. After three rings the answering machine picked up. Horo's chucking voice sounded through the other end, and for a moment Yoh thought that it was actually him talking. But he knew that it was a recording, and that fact only made it worse. The last thing he'd hear from him, and it would be from a machine.

_Hey! You've reached the Usui household. Uh, me and Pirika are out at the moment, but we'll be back later! Oh, and hi Yoh! Surprised I know it's you? You're the only one who calls here anyway. Um, but yeah, you can just leave me a message and I'll call you later!_

Yoh felt himself involuntarily crying as he listened to Horo speaking, especially when he said his name. Of course Yoh was the only one who called there; Pirika had a cell-phone, and Horo didn't have that many friends. Well, he had Ren, but Ren didn't talk much. They didn't even think he knew how to use the phone.

Yoh gasped when he realized that the BEEP had come and gone a while ago, and the message was already recording. And he'd been crying the whole time. Not that Pirika wouldn't understand why. She was probably crying wherever she was, too. Yoh spoke into the phone, trying to hold his voice steady as he spoke.

"Um, Pirika, listen, I know what happened and I'm sorry. I'm taking it really hard myself. I just thought I'd call and ask if you're okay. I guess you are, since you're not at home, but I want to talk to you anyway. So, call me back when you get this message, okay? We don't have to talk about what happened, if you don't want to. I just want to know that you're alright. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

Yoh had managed to prevent a few sniffles from making their way through the receiver, but he'd been crying nonstop the whole time anyway. Well, at least Pirika was alright. She was probably somewhere with her friends, or at least with someone who could make her feel better.

At least, that was what Yoh hoped she was doing.

(Page breaker)

"Shaman Queen?" Hao asked, completely baffled that he'd just been asked such a question. Of course he was still looking for a queen; if he was to be Shaman King, he'd need to have someone to share the glory with him. But, he didn't think anyone would willingly _ask_ for the position, "Seriously? Why? I killed your brother! Why would you want to join me?"

Pirika thought of the wording she would use to explain it to him. Why did she want to join him? She didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of her mistakes, so she knew that the only way to prevent her friends from being killed was to stop Hao from thinking of them as his enemies. Sure, they'd never be friends, and Pirika would never get to see them again, but at least they'd live.

"Well…" Pirika just couldn't think of anything to say. But Hao seemed to know that, because he just nodded as a sign that Pirika need not continue. He knew her reason; after all, he could read minds.

Pirika could hear her cell-phone ring and, checking the caller ID, she identified the caller as Yoh. He'd probably tried calling her at home and found that she wasn't there. He knew her cell-phone number too, and she knew he was worried about her.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Hao mocked, knowing fully well that she couldn't. If Yoh asked where she was, she wouldn't be able to answer truthfully. Not talking to him would also spare her the trouble of having to say goodbye.

"No." Pirika answered bluntly, watching as a smirk made itself apparent on Hao's face. Finally her phone stopped ringing, and a dull silence blanketed over the room. Pirika still wasn't comfortable with being in the presence of her sworn enemy, but she'd just have to get used to it.

(Page breaker)

Yoh was even more worried now. Sure, it was one thing for Pirika not to pick up the phone at home if she wasn't there, but she took her cell-phone everywhere with her. It wasn't like her not to answer it.

_What if something's stopping her from answering? _Yoh found himself deep in thought. _What if she wouldn't answer because she can't?_ So many problems presented themselves to Yoh, and there was only one way to find out for certain where she was. Go after her.

Yoh pulled his raincoat out of the hall closet, knowing that it was rain season and he could never be too careful, and slung it over his shoulder for the off chance that he should need it. He took some money from a jar they kept in the hallway for tax fares incase he needed to take a cab eventually.

But yet another problem aroused as he stepped out onto the sidewalk outside: where would he look first?

He came up with the conclusion that she couldn't have made it very far. She'd been at the hospital with her brother when he'd died, and Yoh had arrived there after she'd left, only a few hours later, he'd been told by the doctors. Her and her brother had had very little money, mainly because they had no parents to support them, and he hadn't even been twenty years old when he'd died.

_Alright, I'll look around the neighborhood first, and go from there. She can't have gotten that far. She's never traveled by herself without her brother before, and I doubt she'd have started today. _But, of course, Yoh knew that she very well could have gone the distance just to get away from the fact that her brother had just died.

And Yoh was off on his way, still having no idea that the place he was looking for was the last place he'd actually look, and also the closest to where he had started.

**DarkTaoAngel: Um, yeah. This isn't a very good chapter, and it isn't very long, but it's more of a filler than anything. Oh, and I assume that Ren can't use the phone (at least not very well) because he's not very good with electronics. But, he might still appear in this story, so look out for him! And Yoh's here now! Okay, just review and I might update a bit faster next time.**


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